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Show Monday. April 20, 2009 World&Hsktion Page 8 TattoosfromAuschwitz horror reunite lost inmates JERUSALEM (AP)- As terrified teenagers 65 years ago, Menachem Sholowicz and Anshel Sieradzki stood in line together in Auschwitz, having serial numbers tattooed on their arms. Sholowicz was B-14594; Sieradzki was B14595. The two Polish Jews had never met, they never spoke and they were quickly separated. Each survived the Nazi death camp, moved to Israel, married, and became grandfathers. They didn't meet again until a few weeks ago, having stumbled upon each other through the Internet. Late in life, the two men speak daily, suddenly partners who share their darkest traumas. USU CHOIRS & SOLOISTS AMERICAN FESTIVAL CHORUS USU SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SERGIO BERNAL, DIRECTOR SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 7:30 PM ENT CONCERT HALL, USU 5/USU STUDENTS FREE WITH ID OXOFFICE.USU.EDU/797-8022 UtahStateUniversitv "We are blood brothers," said Sieradzki, 81. "The moment I meet someone who was there with me, who went through what I went though, who saw what I saw, who felt what I felt - at that moment we are brothers." The twist of fate doesn't end there. Two brothers who were with them in the tattooist's line have made contact since hearing of their story. One of the brothers joined them for a reunion on Sunday at Israel's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem. With tears in their eyes, the three embraced warmly and caught up 1 "Choose a Career That Gets You Out of the Office HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS M E N A C H E M SHULOVITZ, 80, right, Anshel Szieradzki, 81, center, and Yaakov Zeretzki, 82, display their concentration camp number at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem Sunday, April 19. As terrified teenagers 65 years ago, Menachem Sholowicz and Anshel Sieradzki stood one ahead of the other in Auschwitz, having serial numbers tattooed on their arms. Sholowicz was B-14594; Sieradzki was B-14595. Zeretzki was B14597 and his brother, not seen in the picture, was B-14596. AP photo on painful memories in Hebrew and in Yiddish. "This is my victory," Sieradzki said. The meeting came a day before Israel marks its annual Holocaust remembrance day beginning Monday night, commemorating the 6 million Jews murdered in World War II. The four survivors, with the consecutive serial numbers, are among hundreds of thousands of survivors who poured into Israel at the birth of the Jewish state. An estimated 250,000 are still alive in Israel, carrying the physical and emotional scars of that era. "It is never forgotten, not for a moment," Sieradzki said. "It's like an infected sore deep inside that hurts every time it is exposed." The unlikely reconnection began when Sholowicz's daughter found a Web site that detailed Sieradzki s odyssey from Auschwitz to Israel. It struck her as eerily similar to her father's. All the same elements were there - being separated from parents and siblings and never seeing them again, searching for scraps of bread to eat in the Polish ghettos, surviving the selection process of Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous Auschwitz camp doctor who decided who would live and who would die. They endured Nazi death marches to two other camps in which any emaciated prisoner who fell behind was shot in the head. Later, both moved to Israel, fought in its 1948 war of independence, and made careers in its military industry. Still, the two men never met and the name Sieradzki on the Web site didn't ring a bell. Then Sholowicz, 80, saw the man's number and he froze. "I rolled up my sleeve and sure enough - 1 stood exactly ahead of him in line at Auschwitz," he said. The discovery "was a moment of great emotion, great excitement. We went through it all together. We are like two parallel lines that never met. He called Sieradzki the next day. They recently met halfway between their homes in Haifa and Jerusalem, and a photo of them and their tattoos appeared in an Israeli newspaper. Sieradzki says it is astounding that both survived the Holocaust and lived this long. In Auschwitz, "I used to think about getting through the moment, the hour, at most the day," he said. "I didn't think about the next day, because 1 didn't think 1 was going to live to see the next day." Italy: Mobsters have eyes on PRIVATE PILOT SUMMER 9-WEEK PROGRAM reconstruction For more Information 753-4289 or check our website usuaviation.com Don't S a v e M o n e y On A H a i r c u t . Save Money On Car Insurance. Your State Farm' agent's got your back with the right coverage and discounts up to 40 % on car insurance. Call me today. Lana Powell Ir.vjnnn; Aj;r;K} \TK 550 N MjinM Sic H Rigo Chaparro C U U h H .(ASL Smihfidd *. KOD V. Ilrown c Agrnc) Irw 40 W C^hc Vji1e> B1«JBWj 5 Sic A L^pui 435-7*3-t-UJ STATE FARM INSURANCE LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR, STATE FARM IS THERE* statefarm.com P060347 1/08 State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (not in NJ}, State Farm Indemnity Company (NJ) • Bloomington. IL Di continued from page 2 have their eyes on the reconstruction," Giuseppe Pisanu, a former interior minister who now heads Parliaments antimafia commission, has warned. Pisanu was referring to Italy's three main crime syndicates as he said mobsters have learned to move in political circles throughout Italy as well as enter public administration. Getting a slice of public works contracts in the underdeveloped south, where the central government has poured billions of dollars over the last decades, has long been a major source of revenue for organized crime, particularly Sicily's Cosa Nostra and the Camorra. The Casalesi crime clan, a ruthless branch of the Camorra based near Caserta, is considered to be particularly well-positioned to try to get a sizable piece of the reconstruction action. The Camorra has "the material, the machinery and the men," said Raffaele Cantone, a former Naples anti-Mafia prosecutor now assigned to Italy's top criminal court in Rome. The clan, long considered by investigators to have economic interests in several parts of northern Italy, has strong ties to companies which remove earth, debris and trash, Roberti said. One of the Camorra's more profitable rackets is running illegal dumpsites and transporting toxic waste and other trash for companies throughout Italy, prosecutors' investigations have indicated. One legacy of the many probes following the Naples quake reconstruction is a law requiring bidders for public contracts to receive certification through police checks that they have no ties with organized crime. But the certificate is no guarantee mobsters won't get a sliceof the contract. "The problem is the subcontracting, such as for earth removal or getting cement or other supplies," Roberti said. "Contracting firms can get around this by saying the equipment was rented, or by just not declaring that they subcontracted the work." Italy's national anti-Mafia prosecutor. Piero Grasso, has announced he will set up a task force of experienced organized crime prosecutors to help L'Aquila authorities run background checks on bidders. But with tens of thousands of quake refugees sheltered in tent cities, sleeping in seaside hotels which will soon want to rent rooms to summer vacationers or staying at relatives' homes, pressure is growing to get them settled into new or rebuilt homes. "Urgency plays into the hands of the mafia," Roberti warned. There are fears that work done by companies with links to organized crime could use inferior materials. In Sicily, anti-Mafia magistrates are investigating whether inferior cement was used in building a hospital, a highway tunnel, a dike and even a courthouse, the Italian news agency ANSA reported on Sunday. So far there are no indications that organized crime was to blame for any of the tens of thousands of buildings that collapsed or were heavily damaged. Firefighters clearing rubble in the Abruzzo quake had alleged that poor quality cement and insufficient supporting rods or joints were used in some buildings. On Monday, prosecutors will begin questioning constructors, engineers and inspectors to see if there is criminal blame. Headlined across the front-pages of Italian newspapers Sunday was President Giorgio Napolitano's accusation that the Abruzzo devastation was "made worse by greed and contempt for rules" in construction. |